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Post by toei on Jun 8, 2020 18:32:55 GMT -5
I regret not doing DQ8's post-game, as it's pretty substantial. But after 68 hours, despite super enjoying the main campaign, I was ready to be done. The wildest thing about it is that it reveals your whole character's backstory. I always thought this was odd - the protagonist's backstory isn't normally considered "bonus" or post-game content - but now that I think about it, I get it. Yuji Horii always stuck to the idea of the RPG protagonist as the player's avatar, which is why they never speak. And they have very little backstory, too, for the same reason. So it probably made sense for him that this material should be separated from the main game, as an optional thing.
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Post by Ex on Jun 8, 2020 20:22:10 GMT -5
The wildest thing about it is that it reveals your whole character's backstory. Well that makes me regret not doing it even more so. Oh well, I've still got my legit PS2 copy, who knows I might replay it someday. DQ8 was hella great, worth a double dip I'd think. Strangely enough, DQ8 eschews a lot of the nonsense Level-5 typically saddle their JRPGs with. By that I mean DQ8 is a straight shooting genre piece, probably the apex example of a traditional JRPG actually.
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Post by toei on Jun 8, 2020 21:13:47 GMT -5
The wildest thing about it is that it reveals your whole character's backstory. Well that makes me regret not doing it even more so. Oh well, I've still got my legit PS2 copy, who knows I might replay it someday. DQ8 was hella great, worth a double dip I'd think. Strangely enough, DQ8 eschews a lot of the nonsense Level-5 typically saddle their JRPGs with. By that I mean DQ8 is a straight shooting genre piece, probably the apex example of a traditional JRPG actually. That's cause Yuji Horii was the architect and Level 5 were the workers. Which is a great balance, because Level-5 were trash writers and have a mixed record as game designers, but they were great at cel-shading and so on.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 8, 2020 23:03:16 GMT -5
That's probably a fair take. Level-5 is hit and miss with their games, but when they're just doing the technical work, the results can be fantastic.
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Post by toei on Jun 8, 2020 23:16:02 GMT -5
Beat the DQ3 SNES bonus dungeon, using Xeo's endgame save. Took a fair bit of grinding, though of course, not as much as FAQs would have you believe. My highest-level character was at level 47, my lowest at 42. The main point of the grinding was to boost my Cleric and my Sage's Max HP, because I just couldn't keep them alive when I first tried that boss. In the end I figured that the best way to do so was to change their personalities to something that gave a big Stamina boost - I went with Solitary and Fearless, I think - and give each a Life Ring, which gives a Stamina boost resulting in more HP gains when leveling up. Only got the formula right by the end, though, so I didn't benefit from it as much as I could have.
Either way, I was able to beat the God Dragon with some difficulty... but I did it in 36 turns, and you need to beat him within 35 to be granted a wish. Reloaded my save (since I'd wasted my Yggdrasil Leaves, a rare item that instantly revives a character), reorganized my stuff - notably by giving one of my two Sage Stones to my Warrior, so I could free up my Sage when necessary, as the boss oftens cancels out your stats-boosting spells but you absolutely need to recast them or you won't make it, and you also need to heal everyone pretty much constantly (the Sage Stone is a reusable item that heals everyone by about 80 to 100hp). I beat him in 27 turns the second time around.
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Post by Ex on Jun 8, 2020 23:26:15 GMT -5
toeiSo what did you wish for?
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Post by toei on Jun 8, 2020 23:37:56 GMT -5
toei So what did you wish for? I brought Ortega (the hero's father) back to life. You get a little dialogue with him and your mother when you go back home, but that's about it. I don't know if it changes the ending. In DQ6 beating the bonus dungeon boss resulted in a badass new ending where said boss just flies to the main game's final boss and destroys him in seconds.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 9, 2020 13:41:25 GMT -5
That's the right choice. You know, I should check to see if I did any of that in the GBC version, assuming my save still lives. I'm not entirely sure I did so when I replayed the SNES version a few years back.
I know in successive games, you can fight that battle again, although I think the turn requirement gets more stringent each time.
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Post by toei on Jun 9, 2020 14:31:03 GMT -5
That's the right choice. You know, I should check to see if I did any of that in the GBC version, assuming my save still lives. I'm not entirely sure I did so when I replayed the SNES version a few years back.
I know in successive games, you can fight that battle again, although I think the turn requirement gets more stringent each time.
Yeah, you can do in the SNES game too. The other wishes are the final Pachisi track (ie the board game) and a porn mag or something like that, which serves no real purpose. Apparently the GBC remake has a second bonus dungeon on top of the first, too. I gotta say, leveling up in DQ is always slow, but the post-game grinding is hardest in this game. The highest form of Metal Slimes are Metababbles, and they only give about 10,000 exp to each character. There's a good spot for them, but your chances of killing them are still pretty low, as the game doesn't have any "guaranteed hit" skill like the later games, and critical hits (which kill metababbles instantly) are extremely rare (I only had two the whole time!). And by the time you're above level 40, it takes about 100,000 exp to level up, so even when you do get one, it's just a nice little experience boost. One thing that works some of the time is equipping as many of your characters with Blade Armors as you can, as it has the special effect of reflecting 50% of the damage from physical attacks back at the attacker. So if a Metababble attacks you, they might take 2 or 3 damage at once (I think they have 5hp in total). Most of the time they either flee or cast Fireball, but it's helped me a couple times. I think DQ7 even had a skill that had 50 or 75% chance of hitting as critical? You could really hunt those metal slimes.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 9, 2020 14:34:34 GMT -5
That's probably the reason I like to have a Fighter on hand. That high critical hit rate is extremely useful to get some kills. And no question, the rate for other characters is quite low, assuming you can even tag them in the first place before they run. Again, Fighter comes in handy there.
I never did use that Blade Armor, but you're right, that would be a good way to help take them out. I also don't remember if the Poison Needle works on them, but if it does, that would help as well.
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